In the August issue of W magazine, Jennifer Lopez, 43, revealed that she was homeless at one point in her life.

Lopez wanted to pursue dance full-time, which her mother didn’t quite agree with at the time.

At 18, while studying dance at the Ballet Hispanico, Lopez slept on the couch of the dance studio.

“My mom and I butted heads,” she said. “I didn’t want to go to college—I wanted to try dance full-time. So she and I had a break. I started sleeping on the sofa in the dance studio. I was homeless, but I told her, ‘This is what I have to do.'”

Just as she thought she had hit rock bottom, a few months later, Lopez landed a job dancing in Europe.  Soon after Lopez starred In Living Color.